AIBU to ask, would you buy a house now?

Adventureplease · 2023-03-27T10:11:08+00:00

Hoping for some advice/opinions. So many conflicting stories/opinions in the press regarding house prices. Even the data is unclear. If you were a cash buyer who could wait a few months (even though you would prefer not to) would you hold off to see if prices go down a bit? Or is the UK property market just always going to go up? We are looking in a popular area. Thank you

sst1234 · 27/03/2023 11:12

There is never a bad time to buy a home. Especially if you are renting. Trying to time the market is a fool’s game. People who wait, wait forever, house prices get further and further out of reach.

Overthebow · 27/03/2023 11:14

No one knows what's going to happen, but I agree with pp. You see people on here all the time who have been waiting for the right time to buy, and it never comes. A downturn is only a problem if you're going to sell quickly.

Orangey25 · 27/03/2023 11:16

I read an article that said prices might dip a little bit in the next few months but then would go up again. Obviously that is a total guess but if you plan to keep hold of the house for a while it should go up in value.

ObamaLlamas · 27/03/2023 11:18

Prices have gone down quite a lot recently. I've had my eye on a few houses locally as we're looking to upside and they've all been steadily reduced in price over the last 2 months. For example one was up for £400k and is now down to offers over £370k. I expect they'd even take an offer on that. I'd just go for it if I were you.

MarchMadness23 · 27/03/2023 11:23

I would, but I know our local market very well & what I'm prepared to pay. Also, it would be something I'm going to stay in long term. I've always lived renovating houses, but it's such a nightmare getting trades just now it would have to be something I could live with for a good while, not needing immediate new kitchen/bathroom. I can't do so much myself these days, so that needs to be factored in.

id be more hesitant if it was an area I wasn't familiar with & if if I didn't intend to stay very long.

hiwever, if I was renting, I wouldn't be hanging around solely for the prices to drop.

Original poster

Adventureplease · 27/03/2023 11:33

Thank you for your replies.

We are not renting. We are paying a bit for storage.
We are quite likely looking for something relatively short term so do need to consider stamp duty/solicitors fees etc.
We sold our last house just before the covid boom so we were just wondering if it was worth holding off so that we might be able to go back in slightly closer to where we sold price wise, but I can see that people think that is foolish.

OP posts:

llamazoo2 · 27/03/2023 11:44

Following with interest.

OP I’m not sure of the answer!

Sorry to jump on but would appreciate advice/wisdom. We feel stuck, we can afford the deposit but the repayments of £1100 on a 200k property would be 27/28% of our combined income. Is that too much for first time buyers, does anyone know? I’m terrified of a big bill coming along and not being able to afford it. We currently pay £600 in rent for a two bed but want to start a family soon and hesitant to do that before we’ve bought… but in this crazy world it would be cheaper to start a family here and the area is nicer. No idea what we should do!!

Robin233 · 27/03/2023 12:10

Yes absolutely go for it

caringcarer · 27/03/2023 12:15

Prices have dipped a little bit over last 7 months. Now stabilised though. My son is in process of buying his first house ATM. Doing a 2 year mortgage as hoping for a small decrease in bank base rate in next 2 years. I think it has probably been too low for many years and think a correction to 3-3.5 is more sustainable over time.

TheYearOfSmallThings · 27/03/2023 12:16

If I saw the house I wanted at a fair price (which I could reasonably afford) and I planned to live there for 5 years or more, then I would go ahead and buy.

If I were planning to move on within a few years, or flip the house, or hoping to make a quick profit, I wouldn't rush to buy right now.

Greenfairydust · 27/03/2023 12:17

I am still actively looking at buying. I sold my flat in December, relocated to a new area and moved into a rental.

I really don't want to stay in the rented sector for too long.

I must say the mortgage sector is a worry though as I am anxiously waiting to hear if my mortgage has been approved and I can proceed with my purchase.

If it isn't approved I will still buy, I will just have to go with something a bit cheaper that will need more work.

I am definitely not waiting to try to play the market. I just want to have my own home again.

Peckhaminn · 27/03/2023 12:20

We bought our first house during lockdown. Biggest risk ever but prices were low and so we're interest rates. I lost my job a month after we moved in due to covid/redundancy. Luckily managed to quickly snap a job up within a few weeks, but it was worth every single worry we had. We're now on the property ladder albeit was worrying times and people weren't buying. Best time to buy is usually when interest rates are lower, but because no one is buying at the moment, likelihood is you can bargain for a cheaper price due to shortage of buyers on the market. It swings in roundabouts

Bucks67 · 27/03/2023 12:24

It's not a good time to buy if you want to sell within the next 10 years in my worthless opinion.
Interest rate rises are just beginning to take an effect, usually there's a lag of 12-18months.
If inflation remains sticky say between 3-4% BOE won't be able to cut rates to any great extent.
This is what I think economists might call a regime change that's likely to be with us for a long while, short of a Black Swan event.

llamazoo2 · 27/03/2023 12:29

Bucks67 · 27/03/2023 12:24

It's not a good time to buy if you want to sell within the next 10 years in my worthless opinion.
Interest rate rises are just beginning to take an effect, usually there's a lag of 12-18months.
If inflation remains sticky say between 3-4% BOE won't be able to cut rates to any great extent.
This is what I think economists might call a regime change that's likely to be with us for a long while, short of a Black Swan event.

This is interesting. What could that look like? Surely they have to do something. If borrowing say 210k is going to cost people £1000pcm surely that’s a huge issue… most properties are over 210k anyway, I’m just thinking of the minimum round here

I don’t know how young people are gonna do it if I’m honest. Saving the deposit is no longer the problem. It’s affording the repayments and still having a good quality of life. You don’t wanna buy your lovely new house and it become your prison because every hard earned penny goes on the interest rate rather than enjoying life too

GasPanic · 27/03/2023 12:29

The selling side of the market in my area is not in "realisation mode" at the moment. They have not adjusted to the new interest rate regime and asking prices are sticky. Sales volumes are obviously dropping. My guess is it will take a few more months before sellers start to get realistic and really start to move on prices to get ahead of the movement in the market.

Of course none of this is certain. But I don't see much potential for prices to increase over the next few months, what with cost of living increases and mortgage rate rises. As time goes on, more and more people are coming off fixed mortgage deals and having to remortgage at higher rates, which pulls a lot of money out of the market.

Original poster

Adventureplease · 27/03/2023 16:18

@GasPanic @Bucks67 this is how we see it also. It certainly makes me think that I don’t want to settle for something that we won’t want to be in for long.

Really interesting to see all the different replies.

We will continue to look but not jump on anything unless we really like it. That is our other issue, there is not much about to choose from at the moment, hopefully spring will bring a few more properties to the market.

OP posts:

llamazoo2 · 27/03/2023 16:31

Adventureplease · 27/03/2023 16:18

@GasPanic @Bucks67 this is how we see it also. It certainly makes me think that I don’t want to settle for something that we won’t want to be in for long.

Really interesting to see all the different replies.

We will continue to look but not jump on anything unless we really like it. That is our other issue, there is not much about to choose from at the moment, hopefully spring will bring a few more properties to the market.

Hopefully! There’s not much at all in our area right now, Rightmove is very slow

Allmyplantsdie · 27/03/2023 17:01

I’m in the south east. People have been talking about house prices coming down here for 20 years and they never have.

londonrach · 27/03/2023 17:03

Depends on your area...my neighbour put her house for sale less than a week ago has three offers over asking price... You know your area.

dryingontheradiatior · 27/03/2023 17:04

I don't think house prices will go down. I'm in the south west and houses are selling before they even get advertised properly, that hasn't changed at all. I have 4 friends that are estate agents and there are waiting lists for certain types of properties.

Callmenat · 27/03/2023 17:04

Don't try to time the market is my advice. I would buy now if the property was right for me.

dryingontheradiatior · 27/03/2023 17:06

My cousin also told a reasonably undesirable house (ok starter home but nothing to write home about) - mid terrace, small, 2 bed, no garden, no parking, lots of maintenance that needed doing including major electrical work and roof replacement...it went for stupid money, 4 buyers were competing in offer prices and dropping home made cakes round...madness. They sold it for substantially more than a house like that would have been worth 5 years ago.

TheNoodlesIncident · 27/03/2023 17:09

I absolutely would in our area, yes. Prices have come down, I can see quite a few have been reduced. There are far fewer properties on the market than there usually is, from a few in each road to only a few in many roads.

I would be as careful about which I buy and want to avoid any that need a lot doing to them, but I would still buy.

llamazoo2 · 27/03/2023 17:10

I can believe it @dryingontheradiatior things have gone absolutely crazy. As a 20 something I find the whole situation utterly depressing tbh. We work hard and earn averagely and if we’d been in a position to buy two years ago life would look so much different.

The deposit is no longer the problem, we’ve got that, it’s the eye watering repayments alongside utility bills which are creeping up which mean we’d be fools if we bought now. We aren’t living inner city and we aren’t hoping to buy a big house, just somewhere we can put down roots. Who are these buyers? People with equity already? I don’t see how many FTBs are gonna do it with the way things are going

dryingontheradiatior · 27/03/2023 18:12

I totally get it. We were incredibly lucky to buy about 7 years ago but that was with family help and wouldn't have happened without that. We would like a detached or semi detached but it's impossible with mortgages the way they are right now.